Patience

When I was a gymnast, there was a poem that hung in our gym, and I would read it every single day before I left. I remember it to this day; here's the beginning, "Patience is a virtue, or so the saying goes. A gymnast must have said it, for a gymnast surely knows that in this funny sport of ours, discouragement runs high, and at times the very best may find this virtue's passed them by". Well, once you reach a certain level in the sport, you will always have some gymnast in you.

Last night, I was feeling disappointed with the track practice I'd had, and I was praying about it. God gave me a verse that I'm pretty familiar with, it even hangs on my wall:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1

But I had the King James Version of the Bible in my bed, so I flipped to the page to see what it said:

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

Do you see the big difference there? Perseverance vs. Patience. I'd never heard the "patience" translation before. I was absolutely blown away. God wanted to reassure me, saying not that I needed to push through or work harder, but that I need to relax and wait on His timing. So beautiful! I will wait upon the Lord.



But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31